MV Ilala - References in Culture

References in Culture

British historian, traveller and writer Oliver Ransford thus describes life aboard the MV Ilala in his book Malawi, Livingstone's Lake:

Each day on board, amid the excited bell ringing, siren shrieks and hooting that seem inseparable from all maritime arrivals and departures, laughing crowds of Malawians line up on the Ilala's deck to disembark, cluttered up with baggage that includes bicycles, cages filled with squawking fowl, sewing machines and even tethered goats. They are ferried ashore in lighters to return an hour or so later crammed with another batch of passengers who quickly settle down in the cramped quarters to cards and singing and sleeping and the preparation of meals in little cooking pots. It all looks and sounds like a cross between Hampstead Heath on a Bank holiday and an Eastern market, but when the ship weighs anchor again the noise dies down and the first class passengers resume in their novels, their deck chairs and their worship of the sun. —O. Ransford, Malawi, Livingstone's Lake, 1977

The ship has been depicted in several postage stamps of Nyasaland/Malawi. In 2009, BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service broadcasted a travelogue-style tribute in occasion of the Ilala's 60th anniversary, with interviews with managers, crew, passengers and tourists.